According to a report investigation, major Canadian brands and groups are advertising on “extremist” accounts on X, Elon Musk’s social media platform.
The reported on Tuesday that “several prominent Canadian companies and organizations” have paused their advertising on X, adding to the ongoing debate over Musk’s management of the platform.
According to the report, it reviewed about two dozen accounts associated with “white nationalists, white supremacists, misogynists, and other extremists” and saw advertisements for brands such as Samsung Canada and CF Montréal.
Samsung advertisements were also seen in the X feeds of TikTok Libs and Mike Cernovich. Libs of TikTok, a social media platform that primarily reposts public content created by progressives, has been accused of inciting “anti-trans hatred.”
Some businesses have already stopped advertising on X after their advertisements appeared in the feeds of users they found offensive. After a Noovo, a Bell Media subsidiary, ad appeared on the feed of a “far-right fitness leader,” the company pulled their promotion.
“Despite putting measures in place to protect Noovo from such a situation, it seems that X considered the offensive content from a third party to be moderate, which allowed our ad to appear alongside it,” Patrick Tremblay, a spokesperson for the company, said.
“This is an unacceptable situation.” As a result, Bell Media advertising campaigns on X have been halted.”
Angus Reid also halted promotion on X after advertisements for survey participants appeared in the feed of an account called Anti White Watch, which claims to document instances of white people being victimized and discriminated against.
Sun Life Insurance also stopped advertising on the platform after Musk took over, but a promotional tweet for the brand was recently seen in the feed of white nationalist Richard Spencer. “We are very concerned that our ad appeared next to disturbing and hateful content, and we have had it removed from X,” a spokesperson said, adding that the ad’s appearance was an error.
Despite such concerns, the Jewish organization B’nai Brith said it would continue to advertise on X, even after its ads appeared in Spencer’s feed. “B’nai Brith has made a conscious decision to remain on social media,” CEO Michael Mostyn explained.
“So if you’re making a conscious decision to stay in the social media space … there’s a lot of good and bad that comes with all of that.”
Musk has faced criticism for his approach to content moderation since purchasing X last year. According to Reuters, ad revenues have dropped by more than 50% year on year in every month since the billionaire paid $44 billion for the platform.
His detractors accuse him of allowing hate speech to flourish on the platform and endorsing conspiracy theories in his own tweets.
Musk’s tweet last month supporting the notion that the Jewish community has fostered “hatred against Whites” was widely panned. Musk later referred to the tweet as “the dumbest post I’ve ever done” and traveled to Israel to express solidarity with the Jewish state in its ongoing fight against the Hamas terror group.
Musk said at a panel a few days later that advertisers concerned about his behavior could take their business elsewhere. “If somebody is going to try to blackmail me with advertising, blackmail me with money, go f–k yourself,” he went on to say.
Also read: Musk told advertisers to ‘go f‑‑‑ yourself’ and stop spending on X.
X is now suing Media Matters, an American progressive watchdog group, for allegedly placing ads in the feeds of antisemitic and neo-Nazi users. According to the lawsuit, the group’s findings are not representative of the average user’s experience on X.
According to one executive, organizations such as Media Matters “aggressively search for posts on X and then go to the accounts, and if they see an ad… keep hitting refresh to capture as many brands as possible.”
